Apple's Jobs explains health, will stay CEO

January 06, 2009|By FROM NEWS SERVICES

Apple founder Steve Jobs, a survivor of pancreatic cancer whose gaunt appearance in the past year has alarmed the Mac and iPod lovers who look to him as an oracle, said Monday he has an easily treated hormone imbalance and will remain in charge of the company.

In a public letter, Jobs, 53, said his thinness had been a mystery even to him and his doctors until a few weeks ago, when "sophisticated blood tests" confirmed that he has "a hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy."

"The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I've already begun treatment," he wrote.

Worries about Jobs intensified after Apple said in December that he would not make his annual keynote address Tuesday at the Macworld conference in San Francisco.

Apple said Jobs would not take the stage because this year will mark the company's last appearance at the show, which is run by a separate company. Phil Schiller, an Apple marketing executive, will give the company's presentation instead.

But after Apple's official statements didn't quell the discussion of Jobs' health, the CEO said he released his letter Monday "so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow."

He closed it by saying: "So now I've said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this."